I think it’s the former – better equipment, more experience in fighting knights, etc. 

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

I’d say the difference is that Maegor definitely killed his blood relatives in a physical and direct fashion, whereas Daemon didn’t. 

The kinslaying taboo seems like the sort of thing that will often be honored in the breach.

Morality aside, a strong taboo against kinslaying is an important method of social stabilization in a primogeniture inheritance system where there’s always going to be a temptation for younger siblings to murder their way up the family tree. The existing society has an interest in that not happening a lot.

But there are going to be wide gray areas. For example, it appears to apply only to close kin. Rhaegar and Robert Baratheon were actually quite closely related; they had a common great-grandfather, making them second cousins. That’s really close! But Robert killing the shit out of Rhaegar isn’t accounted kinslaying. This makes sense, because the way nobles intermarry a strong taboo against kinslaying even your extended family tree would quickly be entirely ignored because it would utterly remove violence as a means of conflict resolution, and a culture with a strong warrior caste doesn’t want that.

It also seems to only apply weakly if someone wrongs YOU first. If your kin are trying to usurp you, you may get side-eyed by the pious if you totally murder the balls out of them but likely not more than that. If you have something perceived as a “good reason” like your kin being crazed criminals or having cheated you of your inheritance or something, it is probably much more okay than it otherwise would be. The Brackens and Blackwoods are both close kin to each other, with many short-lived peaces between them sealed with marriage pacts, but you can bet your bottom dollar you had people in that feud killing their first cousins, their uncles, maybe even their-half siblings. But nobody looks upon them as unholy houses of dishonorable kinslayers.

There’s a lot of room for flexibility there.

What there isn’t a lot of room for is “I murdered my brothers because I wanted to inherit.” THAT is probably the kind of kinslaying that the taboo is meant to most strongly guard against.

Oh, it definitely doesn’t apply to extended kin – Rickard Karstark was full of it. 

I also don’t think it counts unless you are physically involved in killing them; Bloodraven is called a kinslayer but Baelor Breakspear isn’t, despite both of them fighting against Daemon Blackfyre, because Bloodraven shot Daemon and his sons himself, whereas Baelor just fought the Blackfyre’s army. 

Aegon II I think falls under the rubric because a dragon is essentially a personal weapon. 

More vs. less isn’t quite the right way to think about it. 

Latifundia, like later plantations, basically involved large gangs of slaves working to produce monocrops for export, so they were more specialized and had a lot of manpower tasked to that one specialty. 

Whereas while the Westerosi system is probably less efficient at producing one crop at volume, it’s more diversified and self-sustaining. 

Discussed here. 

The Freys’ presence at the Tourney of Whitewalls suggests they had either “fought for the Black Dragon once,” or had “reason to resent Bloodraven’s rule, or nurse grievances and ambitions of their own.” Given their prominence in the whole affair, I lean to the former rather than the latter. 

As you say, Ser Eustace doesn’t name them among the Houses that tried “to keep one foot in each camp” or as having outright betrayed Daemon like the Lothstons. So I would guess they fought straight-up and then bent the knee. As for why they’re not numbered as one of the top, they’re a lesser House and nouveau riche to boot.  

I think we’ll have to wait for GRRM’s “Village Hero” story to find out, but odds are that Egg had Pennytree made a royal fief to honor his mentor’s former master. 

And Summerhall is in the Stormlands. 

I’d say the difference is that Maegor definitely killed his blood relatives in a physical and direct fashion, whereas Daemon didn’t. 

Watched the first episode, couldn’t get into it. 

(2) Would Controlling only the Disputed lands give the Blackfyre monarchy enough soft power to control the Three Daughters or would they have to exert hard power over these cities to ensure stability in the region? Do you know of a real life parallel that one could study to better understand how such a situation would unfold? Thank You!

1. If the Blackfyres had created a state in the Disputed Lands, it would definitely be a monarchy, possibly with an advisory council of magisters to keep the locals happy, but definitely a monarchy to emphasize that the Blackfyres are the True Kings of Westeros.

2. No, they’d need Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys as part of their realm. 

Kind of, yeah.